1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to information technology (IT), and more particularly, to a computer platform automatic testing method and system which is designed for use with a computer platform for the purpose of performing an automatic testing procedure on a dedicated circuit unit of the computer platform to thereby check whether the circuit unit of the computer platform can operate normally, and if not, capable of automatically generating a test report in electronic form for use by hardware engineers to more conveniently and efficiently correct the faulted parts in the circuit unit of the computer platform.
2. Description of Related Art
In the manufacture of dedicated circuit units for computer platforms, such as motherboards or function expansion circuit cards, it is a standard practice to perform a testing procedure on these circuit units before shipping to the market or customers, so as to assure that each circuit unit can operate normally. If any faulted parts (such as faulted components or signal transmission paths) are found in these circuit units during the testing procedure, the test engineer team should submit a test report to the hardware design department for use by hardware engineers to correct the faulted parts in the circuit unit of the computer platform being tested.
Presently, a standard operating procedure for the testing of computer-dedicated circuit units is manually conducted by test engineers. During this testing procedure, the test engineer needs to first install the circuit unit under test manually onto a computer platform, and then carries out the testing procedure step by step by manually operating the computer platform in accordance with a standard operating procedure for the computer platform to check whether all the components and I/O signals in the circuit unit are normal.
One drawback to the above-mentioned practice of conducting the testing procedure by manual control, however, is that it is quite tedious, laborious, and time-consuming and therefore highly inefficient. Moreover, the test results may be unreliable due to human errors in the operation of the testing procedure. In addition, since a computer manufacturing factory typically has numerous various different models of computer platforms with different hardware specifications in the production line, it would require different standard operating procedures for the test engineers to carry out the testing procedures on different types of computer-dedicated circuit units, making the testing procedures even more tedious, laborious, time-consuming, and highly inefficient.